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Training Courses

Stakeholder Engagement™ Workshop3 day course

About this course

The Problem

Project managers have been taught to work with bodies of knowledge, methods and frameworks, as well as tools, templates and techniques such as MS Project and Critical Path Analysis. Yet despite following all these sources of professional authority and advice, project managers find they often only get moderate results. Something vital is missing.

The Solution

More and more research identifies that 'something' as the 'people thing'. The picture that emerges is fairly consistent: High performers all seem to have a strong leaning to relationships. Stakeholders and engaging them seems to matter, and matter more than most perhaps realise.

The pearcemayfield powerful & content-rich 3 Day Workshop

This workshop can be tailored to your own needs and delivered on your own premises.

You will find it very ‘hands on’. We often see individuals on this workshop excusing themselves for short periods. This worried us until we discoverd they were making calls based upon what the Workshop had just covered. It's that relevant!

You and your team will have the opportunity to work through a variety of practice exercises, and to discuss your experiences with the workshop leader. Wherever possible we’ll get you working with your colleagues on your own real and immediate engagement challenges.

We designed this Workshop to meet the needs of…

Aspiring leaders and teams leading change through a programme or a project

People supporting programmes, projects and portfolios, Heads of PMOs, consultants and business analysts

Change Managers and Business Analysts looking to hone their influencing skills

People who feel that others obstruct the changes they try to introduce

Agile practitioners looking to improve their people skills and engagement with their teams and their customers.

Nature of this Workshop

This inspirational and practical workshop will give you a comprehensive approach to effective stakeholder engagement within any change initiative, i.e. a project or a programme. You will experience the power of various practices and techniques, which you can use to your advantage immediately after the workshop.

We call it "stakeholder engagement", not stakeholder management. With the engagement mindset, people are treated as people, not resources or blocks; we find that this approach yields far better results. We help you move from a merely transactional management to stakeholders towards a relational and collaborative strategy.

Project success rates are dramatically increased, delays are reduced, and requirements met, through the counter-intuituve emphasis on engaging with people.

Research-based, proven approaches

This workshop emerged out of pearcemayfield's own research into high-performing change leaders, project managers, and programme managers. It cuts to the chase and focuses on specific practices of the high performers that yields results. Delegates find that they gain immediate improvements in the performance of their projects as they put elements of this workshop into practice.

Opportunities to Resolve Your Own Challenges

This workshop is designed in such a way that your own challenges with people in and around your project can be used as practice topics. You will leave with specific concrete steps that make an immediate difference to the success of their projects.

“The buzz on Friday from those who attended was better than for any other workshop I’ve ever attended. We learned a lot and collectively are determined to put it into practice!” -Head of Futures, Strategy, Performance and Communications Directorate, Science and Technology Facilities Council, Harwell, Oxford

Collaborative Approach

The task of engaging your stakeholders doesn't need to rest all on your shoulders, nor should it. In this workshop you will explore how this is done through a team. You will discover how to mobilize and lead high performance teams in engaging a variety of stakeholders.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world: indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” Margaret Mead

Avoids Irrelevant Theory

The material in this workshop is principles-centred, in that we have identified for you a few key elements that always work. It is also practice-oriented. We have designed this workshop with a key learning objective of leaving you with the ability to take practice steps immediately.

"Following the workshop I scheduled coffee with a colleague from another department ... He will be able to influence [his] group. I started with [applying one of the principles you shared. As a result] he’s setting up a focus group for me using his contacts and is behind the proposed approach."Group Marketing Manager

100% of delegates (that's all of them) who have been on this workshop rated its usefulness to the future performance of their job as "Very useful' or "Extremely Useful".

Our unique on-line resource forum

We have built and developed growing and rich resource set that supports you after the workshop. This contains a growing number of files, templates, case studies, and discussions, all of which are freely available to you after the workshop.

This is uniquely available to delegates on this workshop.

Experienced Workshop Leader

You will find that your workshop leader is an experienced facilitator and subject matter expert. He or she will lead you through four key steps of our 7-step engagement model.

Our experience is that you will gain more value from our workshop leader as you practice the techniques. Although content-rich, at least 55% of the timetable is devoted to individual and group work, making this a deeply practical experience.

Over83% of delegates felt that the workshop leader answered their questions "Very well" of "Extremely well".

"The workshop was professionally presented and managed." Project Manager

Practical People Engagement

One of our design aims was to avoid the usual arid PowerPoint copies so common in much management training. Instead you will be given a copy of Patrick Mayfield's Practical People Engagement: Leading Change through the Power of Relationships. This book has been acclaimed by readers as both practical and also refreshingly accessbile, rich in resources, practices and techniques.

Dealing with Difficult Stakeholders

One of the most popular sessions in the Workshop is on dealing with difficult stakeholders. This recognises that 'difficult people' are a fact of life on most projects. How do you deal with them? Here we will take you through a sensitive but robust seven-step negotiating framework.Over time you will find this framework equips you to gain better results in such tough situations.

Other topics covered

The danger of missing important people, and how to avoid that

Prioritizing your stakeholders and your time

How to run a good stakeholder workshop

Things to consider in profiling a stakeholder

Assessing both resistance to change and readiness to change

Being aware of the least natural allies to change

Shaping your game plan of engagement

How to use a transition model or a change model

Putting on different hats in influencing stakeholders

How to adjust communications styles during the life cycle

Choosing the right engagement medium

Influencing with the right people in your project

Timing your messages

How to deal with the 'gatekeepers'

Delighting your customers

Transform the effectiveness of your Projects and Programmes with this unique pearcemayfield programme.